Nov. 11, 2014
San Jose, Calif. - The San José State men's soccer team, the fifth seed, plays the fourth-seed UMKC Kangaroos in the first match of the 2014 Western Athletic Conference Championship Tournament on Thursday. When the two met in the regular season, in Kansas City, the result was a 1-1 draw.
#5 San José State
vs. #4 UMKC
WAC Championship Tournament
Thursday, November 13, 2014, 4:30 p.m.
Championship Field - Seattle, Wash.
Live stats and streaming video are available for free at www.sjsuspartans.com
LIVE STATS
Fans can follow the action of all San José State home and most road contests by accessing the "Live Stats" feature on the men's soccer schedule page at www.sjsuspartans.com.
VIDEO STREAMING
Spartan Digital is your ALL-ACCESS passport to Spartan Athletics. For live and recorded video and audio of San José State men's soccer home games, go to the SPARTAN DIGITAL link on the home page at
www.sjsuspartans.com.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Keep up with all 19 San José State teams through social media sites Twitter and Facebook. For Twitter go to @sjsuathletics and on Facebook become friends with Sammy Spartan.
WAC CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT STREAMED LIVE ON WAC DIGITAL NETWORK
Every match of the 2014 WAC Championship Tournament can be seen, with no cost, on the conference's digital network. To watch all the action log on to http://www.wacsports.com/watch
WAC CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT BRACKET
Thursday, November 13
First Round
Match 1-#4 UMKC vs. #5 San José State, 4:30 (WDN)
Match 2-#3 Utah Valley vs. #6 Bakersfield, 7:30 (WDN)
Friday, November 14
Semifinals
Match 3-#1 UNLV vs. Winner Match 1, 4:30 (WDN)
Match 4-#2 Seattle U vs. Winner Match 2, 7:30 (WDN)
Sunday, November 16
Match 5-Championship, 1:00 (WDN)
SCOUTING UMKC
The Kangaroos enter the WAC Championship Tournament as the four seed and an overall record of 7-9-2. The team finished conference play a 5-4-1 with 16 points. Last week they wrapped up WAC play by splitting a pair of road games, winning 3-1 at Houston Baptist and falling 0-3 at Incarnate Word.
This will be just the third time the Spartans and `Roos have met. In the first meeting of the series, last year, San José State earned a 3-1 win in Kansas City and earlier this season the sides played to a 1-1 draw.
Freshman Defender Nick Cramer has a team-high four goals and one assist for nine points. Tato Chiaparro, a senior forward, has assisted on a team-leading five goals, has scored two himself, and stands on nine points as well.
Chris McGaughey, a senior, has played every minute in goal for the `Roos. He has allowed 25 shots in for a GAA of 1.36, while stopping 80 (.762 save%). His record is 7-9-2 and he has two clean sheets.
Head Coach Rick Benben is in his 17th season leading the UMKC program. He brought a 180-267-39 record into this year.
LAST TIME AGAINST UMKC
Sophomore striker Rory Knibbs scored in the 68th minute as the San José State men's soccer team earned a 1-1 decision in Western Athletic Conference action at Missouri-Kansas City on Sunday afternoon.
The Spartans out shot the UMKC Kangaroos 18-to-14 in 110 minutes of action, led by seven attempts from Knibbs. Greg Harte, who scored twice against Air Force on Friday, got off four shots on Sunday. Uriel Ayala and Ruben Want each took two shots and Johnathan Colunga, Dylan West and Enrique Montano got off one shot apiece.
UMKC struck with a goal in the 45th minute from Nick Cramer and took that 1-0 advantage into half time.
The Spartans out shot the `Roos 5-to-4 in the first 45 minutes, but turned up the pressure in the second half to the tune of a 10-to-5 advantage.
Knibbs' tally, the equalizer, came after he picked up a deflected ball from a defenders attempted tackle and shot it home from 14 yards out. It was his seventh goal of the season and third in two games this weekend.
Felix Petermann made two saves in the match and moved his record to 2-4-1 for the year.
With its 5-1 win at Air Force on Friday night and Sunday's 1-1 draw at UMKC, the Spartans complete their first unbeaten weekend of conference soccer since back-to-back 2-1 wins at CSU Bakersfield and UNLV in the 2012 season.
DYNAMIC DUO
Three players in the WAC have multiple multi-goal games in 2014..two of them are Spartans. Greg Harte (Fr., F, Cork, Ireland) has done it three times; vs. Pacific (9/19), at Air Force (10/10) and most recently against CSU Bakersfield (10/26). Harte is tied with CSUB's Julian Zamora for the most multi-goal games in the league this year.
Rory Knibbs (So., F, London, England) has two multi-goal games in 2014. He recorded a hat-trick against UMass (9/2) and then had two goals at Air Force (10/10).
Knibbs and Harte each scored twice at Air Force (10/10). It's the only game, among WAC teams this season, in which two or more players on a side scored multiple goals in the same game.
DYNAMIC GOALS DUO
Greg Harte (Fr., F, Cork, Ireland) and Rory Knibbs (So., F, London, England) are the most lethal goal scoring combination in the WAC in 2014. The duo have tallied 18 goals, nine each, and individually are tied for second in the conference in goals scored. They account for 50 percent of the team's output this year (78 total points).
DYNAMIC POINTS DUO
Greg Harte (Fr., F, Cork, Ireland) and Rory Knibbs (So., F, London, England) are the most lethal points scoring combination in the WAC in 2014. The duo total 39 points between them, 20 for Knibbs (9G, 2A) and 19 for Harte (9G, 1A). Among WAC players Knibbs ranks second in points and Harte third. They account for 64 percent of the team's output this year (28 total goals).
RATCHETING UP THE DEFENSE
San José State opened conference play with a 1-5 drubbing at CSU Bakersfield. In the nine games since, they have allowed an opponent to score more than a single goal only once. In addition, the team has not lost by more than a single goal in any of its nine subsequent matches.
OFFENSE IS BACK
Through the 18 game regular season, the Spartans have scored 28 goals, fourth most in the WAC. In 2013 the side scored a total if 18 goals in 21 games. This year's edition reached the 18-goal mark in 10 games. In addition, San José State has 72 points to date. Last year the team totaled 47 points, again in 2014 the team reached that total in its first 10 games.
COLUNGA TOPS WAC FEEDERS
Johnathan Colunga (So. MF, Lindsay, Calif.) has eight assists at the end of the regular season (0.50/game average). Both the eight assists and 0.50 assists per game are tops in the WAC.
Nationally, Colunga ranks ninth with his 0.50 assists per game and 13th in total assist (8).